it’s been a strange season, that’s for sure! Track Closures, Exploding engines and the BDC changing hands just to name a few things. No one could have predicted in April that we would have a new BDC owner/operator and one less venue by the end of the season.
I’m going to focus on Driftworks Driver Martin Richards in this Blog mainly.
After an impressive start to BDC 2018 Martin was on top form, 3 Rounds in with 130pts in the bag things were going well and the car was excellent. Martin would then take the invitation to Drive at Iron Drift King in Germany and during the practice before the event had an engine failure. Had this been in the UK it may not have been the biggest deal, pack up and head back home to sort it before the next event but not when you are 14 hrs from home and you came to win.
Luckily our very own Starkey was in Holland traveling to the event and managed to stop by a local shop who happened to have a 1JZ for us to buy, it was quickly loaded into the back of a Micra and rushed to Ferropolisstraße where Martin and his guys were prepped and ready. Check out more in our youtube video here .
Once back in the UK the Engine was given a more thorough checkover and everything was back in for RD.4 of BDC at Three Sisters. Qualifying in 2nd with no sign of the engines impending doom.
With the engine from Holland now also dead, a solution was needed. The gap between 1st and 2nd was growing and the gap between 2nd and 3rd was getting much smaller.
The Solution was a 2JZ bottom end, turning the 1JZGTE to a 1.5JZGTE giving us 50bhp extra and coming on boost 1000rpm earlier than the 1JZ bottom end.
One saturday at Dynotorque with Craig and all pipes / waterlines etc were modified to accommodate the 2JZ bottom end sitting higher than the 1JZ.
With a quick map and a couple test runs, the only thing left was to get into practice at Rockingham.
After Pro-AM practice the Pro class gets a small amount of time to practice before the Pro-AM’s Qualify.
With only a few minor adjustments, the car was put away until the Sunday. Everyone Happy. On sunday the car came back out to get some more practice in and even a few runs with Phil and the DW86.
Next up would be the unexpected, …again. Martin would need towing off the track 50 mins before qualifying. A blessing if anything, if it had happened in qualifying he would likely have missed both his runs and zero’d.
With 45 mins until his first run, the heat was on. Luckily Martin has surrounded himself with a team that have no issue with this kind of challenge. They had already warmed up with an all nighter in Germany.
Here is a big chunk of gearbox casing that should 100% not be loose.
The team grabbed the car into its spot, grabbed the spare and got to it.
45 mins later and martin was back on the line and throwing down this qualifying run . Martin would end up going into battles and getting knocked out in a run with Connor Shanahan in Top 16!
Despite this, Martin would end up with enough points to take 2nd place in the championship and earn himself a Formula D Pro Licence.
Team Driftworks would also and up taking 2nd in the BDC Team Constructors! All thanks to Martin, Rich, Tessa and their dedication through the season!
